WHEN AMERICA WAS ATTACKED

---'Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war' - William Shakespeare, Julius Caeser, Act III, Scene I ---------
--------'A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.'- Napoleon --------------------------"The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools." Thucydides ----
God gave 'man' a Brain and an instrument but only enough blood to use them one at a time! (paraphrased from Robin Williams on Jay Leno)

I now have joined the electronic age and have paypal and EBay auctions.

VolleyFireOverseas

This is a blog I set up to chronicle my adventures in wargaming overseas in Scotland in 2011 and to continue following particular games overseas that I enjoyed with my new friends in Edinburgh. I look forward to finally updating this with more pics soon.

With Angus still
up in Orkney, this game report is brought to you by Colin Jack, who's enthusiasm
for his ficticious "Very British Civil War" - an alternative history take on the
aftermath of Edward VIII's abdication - has led to its development into a
fully-fledged "period", with its own particular - and peculiar - style. Here's
what he says; This was the game
that our SESWC Club put on at Albanich, the small wargame show held in Dumfries
in January. As is usual with display games very little of it got played at the
show, as the guys were too busy talking to visitors, and expplaining exactly
what !1938" was all about. The scenario revolved around a British Union of
Facist and Royalist attack on Acklington airfield, just south of Alnwick.
Bill's job as the Socialist commander was to use his miners militias to blunt
the attack, which would then leave less for Hugh's better-armed Anglican League
defenders to do. As the attackers led with their armour the initial clash was
one-sided, and over very quickly. The surviving miners - classed as "raw"
militiamen - were soon in retreat. The Anglican League then threw their two
Vickers Mark II tanks into the fray, and were soon engaged in a full-scale
armoured battle with a Royalist Vickers Mark III tank and a Lanchester armoured
car.

Meanwhile, the 2pdr
anti-tank gun defending the airfield airfieldknocked out the truck transporting
one of the Royal Naval Brigade's units, killing several of the passengers. That
blunted the advance towards the airfiled - at least for the moment. Dissatisfied
with the speed of the attack, Dave - the BUF commander (that's him with the
glasses) sent his infantry buses up the road at full speed, heading towards the
gates of the airfield. The buses even managed to run over several enemy infantry
on the way. He also detached his own armour - the massive French tank "Black
Prince" - to bolster the Royalist tankers.

Once again the
players ran out of time - the danger of putting on a large and complex game on a
normal club night. As the game ended, the first bus had reached the gates of the
airfield, where it had ground to a halt, while it's passengers were pinned
inside and unable to de-bus. Things had been looking bad for the Miners and the
Anglican League, until the last-minute arrival of reinforcements. Two
"Armadillos" arrived to support the fleeing Socialists - the Armadillo being
essentially a pillbox mounted on the back of a truck! The troops in the
Armadillos managed to pour fire onto the Fascist column, and so thwart the
madcap charge by the buses. They were the heroes of the left - apart from the AT
gun and the armour, most of the Anglican defenders never fired a shot! A few
more turns might have been interesting, but the time had come to pack our shiny
toys away, ready for another outing some other day.

Note from Angus: While I don't have a page dedicated to the Very British
Civil War (aka "1938", or "The Third British Civil War"), I've asked Colin to
pull something together for you, and with luck we'll be able to post it here in
the next few weeks. After all, despite my "bah humbug" protestations that this
isn't a "proper" wargames period, Colin really has put a lot of work into it,
and turned it into something rather special. The rules he uses are Triumph and
Tragedy, and the basics of the alternative history, and the factions involved
can be found in the "period" guidebook "A Very British Civil War". I'm sure you
can get both publications from Caliver Books.

The Red bus in Scotland almost won the game as the BUF forces almost crashed through the defensive terrain at the airfield.